Farina quick to extend Chianese deal as rival clubs circle

Date: February 19 2013

Dominic Bossi

SYDNEY FC are showing no signs of slowing down their recruitment drive, having re-signed striker Joel Chianese on a one-year deal.

The 23-year-old made a name for himself last season by bagging six goals in just nine appearances, but he has had a frustrating campaign with the Sky Blues and has been limited to just six matches due to injury. He will be given another chance to prove himself under the tenure of Frank Farina after agreeing terms to a new deal on Monday.

The striker was coming off contract, and rival clubs had signalled their interest in signing him. However, Sydney maintained a regular line of communication regarding a contract extension, and Chianese had no hesitation in re-signing when the offer eventually arrived.

''With every player there's always opportunities out there but for me the club approached me pretty quickly,'' he said. ''They let me know their intentions of keeping me here, they had faith in me, they obviously said to me they know what I can do on the park so for me it wasn't really a tough decision.''

This is only Chianese's second season in the senior squad but the striker has been part of the club since 2008, when he was selected in their National Youth League team. He progressed through the youth ranks and attributes the club's newfound stability as an influencing factor to agreeing to sign a new deal.

"I'm happy here at Sydney FC and feel settled and when they showed some interest and faith in me it was a pretty easy decision for me to stay," he said. "There is a really good feeling at the club at the moment and I'm looking forward to being a part of that for the rest of the year and next season.''

His new deal comes just two days after Sydney signed Socceroos captain Lucas Neill for the remainder of the season. The club is also in the final stages of negotiations with Alessandro Del Piero over a new deal and Chianese says that the presence of such star players is having a positive effect on the youngsters.

''It keeps getting bigger and bigger,'' he said. ''We have Alessandro, one of the legends of the game and now we have the Australian captain, it's great. The type of people they are, they don't think they're better than anybody else so it's great to have those guys in.''

Despite injury limiting his game time this season, Farina was quick to support a new deal for Chianese as he offers a different style of attack to their other strikers.

"Joel's a talented young player who has shown he can score goals in the A-League," Farina said. "He's worked hard to get back into the squad after a few injuries and I think he can offer us something. He's quick and makes very intelligent forward runs.''

This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.